HEIDI SCHWEGLER and QUAYOLA
PLANE OF SCATTERED PASTS

May 2 – June 22, 2019
Preview Wednesday, May 1 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm (artist Heidi Schwegler present)
Opening Thursday, May 2 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm
First Thursday art walk June 6 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm

THE WORK
Plane of Scattered Pasts offers ways of thinking about objects, their histories and their inexorable fragmentation through works by Heidi Schwegler and Quayola.

Wear and tear are visual cues of a thing’s history, its former life of use and purpose. Heidi Schwegler’s new sculptures deal with un-repaired fragments from forms both monumental and ordinary, amending old or broken things by recasting and embellishing their forms and remaking them in different materials. Schwegler reorients their original states in terms of aesthetic value: a rumination on current and future brokenness, and the perils and pleasures of aging, for objects and for all of us.

Quayola’s video installation, Strata #1, focuses on a single monumental work from his native Rome: a 17th century ceiling fresco by Giovani Battista Gaulli. As the camera pans, the scene is punctuated by growths of abstract shapes, interrupting and sometimes overwhelming the historical artwork with contemporary forms. Both layers of imagery are rooted in the geometry and iconography of perfection, divided by the strata of time.

THE ARTISTS
Heidi Schwegler (b. 1967, San Antonio, Texas) explores a wide range of materials in the service of her subject matter. Drawn to the peripheral ruin, she deftly incorporates found objects with traditional craft and sculpture media. Schwegler’s accolades include an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission, Hallie Ford Fellowship and two a MacDowell Colony Fellowships in the Visual Arts. She was artist-in-residence at MacDowell Colony, Pilchuk, Yaddo, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and Bullseye Glass Company, among others. Schwegler is based in Yucca Valley, CA where she co-founded the Yucca Valley Material Lab. She is represented by Upfor.

Quayola (b. 1982, Rome, Italy) employs technology as lens to explore the tensions and equilibriums between seemingly opposing forces: the real and artificial, figurative and abstract, old and new. Constructing immersive installations, often at historically significant architectural sites, he engages with and reimagines canonical imagery through contemporary technology. His varied practice, all deriving from custom computer software, includes audiovisual performance, video, sculpture, and works on paper. Quayola holds a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Media from the University of Arts, London and is based in London, UK. In 2013, Quayola was awarded the Golden Nica at Ars Electronica. Work shown courtesy bitforms, New York.

PRESS
Heidi Schwegler and Quayola: Plane of Scattered Pasts - this is tomorrow
Critical Viewing: May 2019 - Art & About PDX